Posted on 07/15/2015 12:25:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In June, Greece defaulted on a €1.73 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund. In a national referendum shortly thereafter, the Greeks strongly rejected European conditions for receiving yet another bailout. For the first time in the Eurozone’s history, the exit of one of its member countries became a very real possibility.
[SNIP]
While there are important differences between the U.S. and Greek economies, policy makers and the public should be concerned with the dismal U.S. fiscal outlook.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates in its alternative fiscal scenario that U.S. publicly held debt will grow to 180 percent (exceeding the current Greek-level) by 2039. Yet U.S. debt is already in the danger zone, dragging down present-day growth prospects.
Diverse academic research shows that economic growth slows significantly at high levels of public debt. Carmen M. Reinhart, Vincent R. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, as well as Manmohan S. Kumar, Jaejoon Woo, Stephen Cecchetti, Madhusudan Mohanty and Fabrizio Zampolli, report that advanced economies with high levels of debt (85-90 percent of GDP and higher) grow more slowly annually than their lower-debt counterparts. The United States is on track to reach those levels by the end of the decade.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, “Such a large amount of federal debt will reduce the nation’s output and income below what would occur if the debt was smaller, and it raises the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which the government would lose the ability to borrow money at affordable interest rates).”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Uhh, the question isn’t “Could America become like Greece”, the question is “When will” America become like Greece.
GREECE IS THE WORD
(With Apologies to the Bee Gees)
I saw my problems and I’ll see the light
We got a lovin’ thing, we gotta feed it right
There ain’t no danger we can go too far
We start believin’ now that we can be who we are - Greece is the word
They think our love is just a growin’ pain
Why don’t they understand? it’s just a cryin’ shame
Their lips are lyin’, only real is real
We stop the fight right now, we got to be what we feel - Greece is the word
It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning
Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
We take the pressure, and we throw away conventionality, belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believin’ now that we can be who we are - Greece is the word
It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning
Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
This is a life of illusion, a life of control
Mixed with confusion - what’re we doin’ here?
We take the pressure, and we throw away conventionality, belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believin’ now that we can be who we are - Greece is the word
It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning
Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning
Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
We are on that road, but nearly all of the European Union is far ahead of us on that track.
We’re already there.
No, we’ll never be like Greece.
By the time we go belly up, there won’t be anyone to bail us out!
America won’t be “the next Greece”.
Have to work our way through the rest of the “PIIGS”, for a start.
But our turn’s coming.
And the Cleansing will be Old Testament in scope and nature.
I think our government’s policy is to be the last nation that goes bankrupt. If we outlast the others there is no one to complain.
No. No other country is giving this country loans and bailouts. Every country has its greedy hands out looking to collect from the USA.
If you mean “could the USA enter a downward spiral leading to a complete loss of prosperity,” the answer is that it already has.
Well, I’m here to tell you...
...if THAT happens....
I’m NOT wearing a toga and sandals. Just.... NO....
We are way worse off than Greece. The only reason this has not happened here is because we have our own fiat currency and our liabilities are further down the road rather than right up front.
And because Oil is pegged to the American dollar. If that wasn't the case the bottom would have fallen out - We'd be paying a thousand dollars for a loaf of bread.
Is this a trick question?
Uh - a scarier thought - America is on auto-pilot to become Greece - will enough stupid people finally come to and vote in someone who will somehow stop us from ending up there - I’m betting no.....
The answer is no. A sovereign state has two things that Greece and the rest of the EU do not have. One is an economic policy the other is a fiscal policy. The first is the ability to print money. The second is the ability to spend money. The EU adopted a common economic policy and the individual states gave up the ability to print their own money. They agreed, in principle, to maintain a common and sustainable fiscal policy; the amount they spend. But Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland threw away all fiscal responsibility and spent as much as they liked. Their politicians gave away benefits in exchange for votes that their countries have no means to pay for. The business model was to spend, spend, spend and let the Germans pay for it all.
The EU will keep it up until the Germans decide they don’t want to work until they’re sixty-five so the other EU members can retire in their fifties.
But America can print as much money as it wants. In 2009 the Fed doubled the amount of currency authorized. They didn’t actually print it, but they sold it to other countries as treasury bills. In 2010 they doubled the original amount yet again. This time they developed a Ponzi scheme where Federal reserve banks bought the money with the money the Fed’s clicked into existence so they could buy the treasury notes. (If that sounds confusing then it’s legal but unethical.)
So, no Greece for us. Instead we’ll be the new Soviet Union where the people pretend to work and the government pretends to pay us.
Soon we will be Greece.
When will we become Egypt?
If the historical revisionists are correct, that's when we'll have flying cars again.
Whoopee!
No, we can’t be the next Greece - because there’s no one in the world large enough to bail us out.
We’ll go under.
When it happens here it’ll be for keeps.
No more than Chase could become an S&L from the 1980’s.
We are literally too big to fail. The whole world economy right now is riding on our printing presses. This game of three-card monte is going to go on for a LOOOOOOONG time, I’m afraid.
Sure, only 100 times worse.
And when was the last time you heard anyone even mention the $18 Trillion debt, or even trying to balance the budget?
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